Looking to start a project and I'm new to Arduino so I've got some questions. I am trying to plan out a project involving collecting environmental data from lakes and other bodies of water. The general idea would be to have several sensors places around the lake that would relay data to a central hub.
My first question is related to the communication between the sensors and the central hub. I was considering communicating through something like a Python messaging queue. If I'm to understand correctly, the Arduino mega can run some Python scripts using PyMite. I know PyMite is only a subset of Python so I'm not sure if I would be able to run messaging queues or not.
My next question is related to powering the distributed sensors. We were hoping to have them solar powered. I would think powering the antenna or whatever is used to communicate with the central hub might draw a lot of power. Would it be possible to have the sensors gather data, store it temporarily, and then power up their communication hardware to send out data once or day or something to that effect?
I have had a quick look at the PyMite website - I did not know it existed.
I strongly suggest you not to bother with it and just use the standard Arduino programming system which is programmed in C/C++. The Arduino system makes the experience pretty painless (especially if you are generally familiar with programming) and there is a huge amount of support here on the Forum from people who are familiar with the Arduino system.
Couple of questions about your system
What is the likely maximum range between a sensor and the master device?
What is the likely maximum range between the nearest pair of sensors if that is shorter?
How often does data need to be transmitted?
A solar-charged battery power system for each Arduino+sensor would probably be quite adequate. You will need more capacity for more frequent data collection and transmission.
Have a look at http://lowpowerlab.com/moteino/ in terms of power management etc for your project. A small Battery pack and solar panel would be fine for each node - or depending on access and how often you wish to attend a bigger battery pack that can be swapped out every couple of weeks.
The wireless offering there also have great range when coupled with external aerials and enough elevation.
Depending on how frequently you are taking readings you could store them and batch them up - have the master listening for a node wishing to communicate which could be a standard short preamble with a node address, and the master responding if it is OK to communicate.